Bye Spotify, hello MP3s
I was on and off on different streaming subscriptions like Spotify or Apple Music for a long while. I would eventually cancel my subscriptions for 2 main reasons, price and the algorithm.
In Germany, Spotify premium it's 12.99€ per month. That's not a huge price tag, but it's also not insignificant. I felt ok paying for it when I was regularly listening to music, but often times I just had periods when I would just listen to a couple of hours per month. So the expense just felt a bit unjustified. The non premium version of Spotify is decent for a short listening session, but the ads get really annoying after a while.
The second reason is that somehow I would end up listening to always the same music. I have a small number of artists and albums that I really like and I would put them on rotation. Sometimes I would go on the discovery playlist, but somehow I would always end up quite disappointed by the recommendations! I am sure that that's probably just me, since I heard people really like the algorithm recommendations.
A couple of months ago I decided to do something different. I made a list of all the albums that I would really like to listen on a regular basis, and then ordered them from this used music/movies/books website. Here is a list of what I ordered:
| Artist | Album |
|---|---|
| All Time Low | Nothing Personal |
| Blink-182 | Enema of the State |
| Daft Punk | Random Access Memories |
| Eminem | The Marshall Mathers LP 2 |
| Green Day | 21st Century Breakdown |
| Green Day | American Idiot |
| Imagine Dragons | Night Visions |
| Linkin Park | Hybrid Theory |
| Linkin Park | Meteora |
| Nirvana | Best Of Nirvana |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | Californication |
| Skrillex | Bangarang EP |
| Sum 41 | All Killer No Filler |
| Sum 41 | Chuck |
| Sum 41 | Screaming Bloody Murder |
| The Beatles | 1 |
As you can see I have a bit of a soft spot for early 2000s punk rock music, with a bit of other things that I listened growing up. For the 16 CDs I ended up spending 61,92€. Here are some pictures of them:
 |
 |
|---|
I am planning to do another order soon as soon as I have made my mind on what CDs I would like to add.
I considered using an old mp3 player that I have for playing them, but I decided to just use my phone and the VLC app. The app is not the best, but it's free, open source, not filled with ads and has at least the basics covered (Albums, playlist, random playing). Here is how it looks like:
 |
 |
 |
|---|
I want to conclude with some thoughts on this process:
- I really loved the search for the albums that I wanted to buy. I spent hours listening on YouTube to songs in order to decided what I liked most. It feels somehow more definitive when you invest some money on a CD versus just opening a streaming app.
- The limited number of songs (approx 230 songs / 14h listen time) has not been boring. Actually quite the opposite. Not having the freedom to just skip for something else makes me just appreciate the song more and not have fomo. I often felt like Spotify was a tiktok-like experience.
- Not having ads is great. Not having a recurrent fee is also great. Knowing that I now own the music and I don't need an internet connection to play them is just awesome.
- Listening to a full album is something that I missed. There is something very relaxing to go from the first till the last song of an album and not just get the greatest hit.
- I do still occasionally listen to the non-premium version of Spotify. The I find the desktop experience better and with less ads.
- I often put on the radio when I want to listen something completely new. There are many radios which are ad-free (for example, DASDING) and do some small moderation while proposing top pop hits.
- I have since the first order bought some other CDs from used stores around my city. The price it's even lower than online, usually ~1€. This makes for a fun and sporadic activity.
- The CDs make for a nice decorative item our home, and a conversation starter, especially if it's an album that the guest likes as well.